The present disclosure relates to a buoyancy compensating structure that may be used in an underwater vehicle, and a method for compensating the buoyancy of a payload structure.
Maintaining a particular buoyancy is a goal for underwater vehicles, as operating at a near neutral buoyancy can allow underwater vehicles to operate most efficiently. In situations where underwater vehicles are configured to deploy items from the underwater vehicle to the water, or to acquire an item from the water for inclusion into the underwater vehicle, or even to move items to different locations in an underwater vehicle, there may be an inherent change in buoyancy of the underwater vehicle. Such items may include anything needing to be deployed, including but not limited to transponders, sensors and floating or sinking capsules.
It is desirable to provide a buoyancy compensation structure that allows for any buoyancy change in an underwater vehicle to be appropriately offset using a system that can provide structural integrity to the payload structure, without unduly limiting the amount of space in a payload structure for housing of items to be deployed. Such a structure can allow for buoyancy compensation to account for payload release of items that are heavy or light in water, and incorporate such a capability within the structure itself so as to maximize a large and continuous volume for the actual payload to be deployed or received.